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• Peacekeepers or warriors? Has the role of Canada changed?
• In the current environment where conflict is more complex, and the responses to conflict link security and development, it is easy to assume that a choice must be made between being a peacekeeper or a warrior. However, when we examine the conflict landscape, the relationship between security and development often results in a sense that it is not as simple as being one or the other, but is far more complex and is likely to be both/and. The mythology of Canada as a “peacekeeping nation” still resonates within the general population; closer examination of history makes it clear that Canada’s military has a distinguished record of being warriors when required, as well as being capable of being the peacekeeper when required. It is simplistic to assert that it is one or the other; it requires more analysis to appreciate the role Canada can play on the world stage because of its capacity to be and do both.
• Triggers of conflicts
• Peacekeeping has traditionally been defined as a process where a group of lightly armed military personnel stood between two parties to a conflict who had agreed to a ceasefire, to keep the peace. In the post-Cold War environment, conflict is managed very differently, as the triggers to conflict are now far more related to intra-State matters, such as ethnic diversity, the role of non-State actors, access to resources such as food, water and health care; the impact is evident in the news each evening. Because the paradigm of conflict is changing, we must also respond to the management of conflict differently, and so the activities that fall under peace operations have also evolved.

  ·        Climate change and water shortage – Here are some hard realities with predictable outcomes.

  ·        Increased price of oil means a surge of interest in bio-fuels, or  ‘‘Corn for cars, not people”
  • What do you do when corn is grown for cars and not people?
  • Food riots – How does a UN police officer manage a crowd of hungry people?
  • How do we mitigate the 400 per cent increase in the price of food when there is no economic infrastructure to respond to the needs of the people
  • How do we rethink the management of resources (food, water, medicine/health care, utilities, transportation) and their allocation to manage triggers to conflict

  ·        What is a “war amongst the peoples” and how does that reality impact on civilian populations, especially women and children

• Child soldiers
• While human rights and humanitarian organizations have been working to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and rehabilitate children involved in conflicts, the effects of this phenomenon continue to be widespread. The failure to effectively reintegrate children in post-conflict environments leads to their continued vulnerability and can undermine political efforts to implement a peace agreement. Combined with the increasing numbers of “feral” children due to HIV/AIDS, war, internecine conflict, human trafficking, and absence of education, family and social constructs, the impact to fragile/failing states of these large populations of children means that the likelihood of increased recruitment of child soldiers/child combatants will continue. How to manage this reality is of increasing concern to those working in the security-development nexus, and in the construction of a civil society in the post-conflict environment.
• Negotiations and Mediation
• In the context of evolving landscape of conflicts, we have to rethink the way we conduct peace operations. Perhaps we need to shift the paradigm when there is an absence of government. One of the major issues for consideration is how to build the peace agreement; who should be around the table; what is the role of women in the building of peace agreements; what is the local capacity for strengthening community activity in all those areas necessary for civil society to be successful; how are negotiation and/or mediation processes affected by the various triggers to conflict and how do these triggers play out in the selection of the participants in negotiating/mediating the peace? What role do alternative dispute resolution mechanisms play in framing the dialogue for conflict management? Who do we talk to build sustainable peace?
  • Insurgents?
  • The Taliban?
  • War lords?
  • Farmers? Poppy farmers?
• After the war … How to reintegrate former combatants into society?
• When former combatants are demobilized, demilitarized, and need to be reintegrated, what reintegration programs and assistance measures need to be provided in advance of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) processes? If there is no economic program planned or actually in situ, how does that impact on the capacity of former combatants to be successfully reintegrated into civil society? How do “Truth and Reconciliation” processes impact positively or negatively upon the DDR process? Who should be engaged from the local community to ensure that the reintegration processes can be viable and sustainable?

  The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre fundamentally believes that the reintegration stage can make or break a peace operation.

• The Impact of International Peace Operations on the Local Population
• Peace operations plant seeds for future development. The people who live in a post-conflict zone have to live with the seeds of international peace operations long after they have been planted.

  Recent research indicates that very often, the reconstruction of cultural landmarks such as marketplaces, bridges, living spaces, and religious institutions are not managed in a way that results in the local population being able to “own” their environment. As a result, the impact of the external actor, no matter how pure the intention, is longer lasting and can often be the trigger to another conflict in the area. Research indicates that 50 per cent of peace agreements fail within a five-year window, returning the area to conflict; often times, the trigger is based on an unintended consequence of the peace operation and the peace agreement.

• Women in Peace Operations
• Women play a vital role in today’s complex peace operations; women and children are most affected by conflict. They are the victims of rape and other violent crime. Due to the changes in how wars are being fought, and the rise of the non-State actor who usually does not subscribe to the international codes of conduct in wartime, there is an increased sense of license for raping and looting by many of the actors in contemporary conflict. In terms of prevention, increased training for peacekeeping troops, police and humanitarian actors in conflict zones is of critical importance.

  At the point of creating a peace agreement, the role of women is critical. In many of the cultures, women are the backbone of society and the keeper of the family; for them to be excluded from the table means that their role in the (re)construction of a post-conflict society is marginalized, or ignored altogether.

  The topic of women in peace and humanitarian operations is of great interest to the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre (PPC) because gender equality a basic prerequisite of any sound, equitable and sustainable peace operation.

• Sexual Abuse and Violence Perpetrated Against Women and Children
• The protection of civilians, including women and children, and the prevention of sexual violence against women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situation is a major concern in contemporary peace operations. Sexual abuse and violence against women and children are often used as weapons.In recognition of the important role that women play in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, and in post-conflict peacebuilding, in 2000, the UN adopted resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. As a follow-up to this resolution, the UN recently adopted resolution 1820 more specific to sexual exploitation and abuse. Women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group. Violence, intimidation and discrimination, in turn, erode women’s capacity and legitimacy to participate in post-conflict life. Given this reality, it is imperative that appropriate preventative action such as pre-deployment and in-theatre training of personnel participating in these operations be made a priority and perpetrators of sexual abuse and violence against women and children be brought to justice.
• Regions/Countries
• We also have several experts who can comment on specific regions or countries. Our subject matter experts have lived in many countries in Africa, in Afghanistan and in Latin America.

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